When the world resets: With

WHEN THE WORLD RESETS

Recent events have cruelly highlighted the unpredictability of our times and presented unique challenges to almost every business. Challenges that will result in a permanent shift in business behaviour. They will initiate a drive to create more resilient business development models that adapt to new customer needs and work to accelerate growth like never before.

Tom Grunbauer

We’ll see businesses redefining purpose, embedding sustainability and embracing innovation as sources of competitive advantage on a previously unseen scale. It will be a time of opportunity for many, where winning companies double-down to differentiate themselves from the pack and improve their business performance, in both pace and scale - to ensure long-term competitiveness in this new business landscape as they prepare for better times.

Whilst some froze on the spot or undertook knee-jerk reactions (that rarely end well) others are using this time to review their customers’ needs, wants and expectations and how a customer’s purchasing and delivery decisions have evolved as we move towards what is being referred to as ‘the new norm’. The opportunity is one of recalibrating your business to find a better message and new ways of engaging with your audience. Priorities and personal values have been reset. Long before the pandemic struck, customers had already started to mistrust big brands and large corporations. Recent events have accelerated this, with values such as family, friendship and local heritage now more important than ever before. Customers have changed how, when and where they shop, using local delivery and multiple digital channels on a greater scale – many for the first time. These are behaviours which will stick when the world resets.

The pandemic has also driven customers to rethink and has raised their expectations of how companies should behave in a crisis. Those responding in a positive way and openly sharing what they are doing are more likely to come out ahead, with customers more sensitive to how their values translate into actions.

This is a rare opportunity for businesses to reflect on these changes, to focus on new customer priorities and values, changes in habit and the use of multiple channels to communicate increasingly customer-centric messages. These should be supported by more authentic, human-centred customer engagement, built on integrity and trust. The epochal changes that have occurred throughout this time of crisis have not led to the ‘end of the world’ but to the ‘end of a world’, from which some outstanding businesses will emerge. Better prepared. Better able to adapt and ready at the start - when the world is able to reset.

BUSINESS MENTOR, SPEAKER AND TRAINER By Dale Howarth

Dale Howarth is an acclaimed business speaker, mentor and trainer; working with individuals and companies to make the business leaders and businesses successes of tomorrow. To find out more visit www.dalehowarth.com.